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15. Nevertheless the atomic bomb was expected to be ready toward the
end of 1944, if it had not been for the effective air attacks on
laboratories engaged in this uranium research, especially on the one
in Ryukon in Norway, where heavy water was produced. It is mainly
for this reason that Germany did not succeed in using the atomic bomb
in this war.
These two paragraphs are quite revealing for several reasons.
First, what is the source for the assertion that the Germans
expected the bomb to be ready in late 1944, well ahead of the
Manhattan Project, and a statement in flat contradiction to the postwar
Allied spin that the Germans were actually far behind Indeed,
during the war, Manhattan Project estimates consistently placed the
Germans ahead of the Allies, and project chief General Leslie
Groves also thought they were. But after the war, everything
suddenly changed. Not only was America ahead, but according to
the Legend, it had been consistently far ahead throughout the war.
Manhattan Project Chief General Leslie Groves
Zinsser's account raises a disturbing possibility - besides
completely contradicting the Allied Legend - and that is, did the
Allies learn of a German A-bomb test during the war If so, then
we may look for certain types of corroborating evidence, for the
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